The story so far...

In January 2015 I will be travelling to India to volunteer for eight months in a school, with an organisation called Project Trust. Project Trust is an educational charity based on the Isle of Coll, a remote Hebridean island. They have been sending young people overseas for volunteering projects since 1967. Project Trust has a very rigorous selection process which includes a five day residential on the Isle of Coll. This is designed to take young people out of their comfort zone and see how they react when faced with difficult situations.

I went on my selection course in the Easter holidays and really enjoyed myself. We all stayed with local families and were told that we needed to find out as much out about life on the Isle of Coll as possible from them, as we had to give a presentation to the rest of the group at the end of the week. Our host family were strongly involved in the recycling scheme on the island, Recycoll, which is important to the island, as it reduces the costs of transporting rubbish on and off the island by boat, so we talked about this in our presentation. As well as presentations we had to teach a lesson, as many of the volunteering projects are based in schools, dig lazy beds, (raised beds with drainage ditches used in remote communities because of lack of soil), volunteer in the community and climb up to the highest point on the island. The selection course ended with a ceilidh which was really fun!

A week later I received a letter from Project Trust saying that they had selected me to go to India and I needed to start fundraising to reach my £4870 target before January. I started my fundraising in July, after my A-levels, and at the end of November I finally reached my target. I began by offering to bake and cook things for people and do jobs such as babysitting and gardening. I started applying for jobs, and finally got accepted by ASDA to work in their chilled department, not good preparation for going to India! I also wrote an article for my church magazine, which said about what I was doing and gave details of my fundraising page. I had overwhelming support from everyone in my church, and many people asked me to do jobs for them and gave me donations. Many people also gave me suggestions for fundraising, especially my god-mother, who has been so helpful all the way through the process. I also began writing to charitable trusts and creating a leaflet. I had lots of responses from trusts, meaning that I was able to raise £2625, which was amazing and I am so grateful for their generosity! The trusts which gave to me were:

·        York Ainsty Rotary Club- £300

·        The Alchemy Foundation- £100

·        The Mahavir Trust- £75

·        The Roger Vere Foundation- £100

·        The Lynn Foundation- £500

·        York Lions- £100

·        The Allan and Nesta Ferguson Foundation- £300

·        The Nichol Young Foundation- £500

·        The Robert Kiln Trust- £200

·        The Souter Charitable Trust- £250

·        Sir John and Lady Amory’s Charitable Trust- £200

I am also really grateful for the donations given by friends and family over the past six months, it has been great to have so much support from everyone! My job at ASDA has also been really useful for raising money. My final fundraising event was a curry lunch, which I held on 30^th November in St Olave’s Church hall. With a lot of help from my parents and friends we managed to make and serve up 6 different types of curry to about 40 people. After we had eaten I did a little presentation about my project and fundraising and thanked all the people who have helped me.

From 2^nd to 6^th December I braved the stormy weather to return to the Isle of Coll for my training course. We had a very intense few days learning about our projects, meeting our partners and being warned about dangerous and upsetting situations we may face whilst abroad, and how to deal with them. We also had workshops on teaching methods and classroom control and we taught a 10 and 20 minute lesson to the rest of our country group. It was really nice to meet everyone again, and the workshops made me really excited about going to India.

Since returning I have had lots of jabs, bought many classic children’s books, stickers, pencils and other teaching resources and got other essentials such a mosquito net, sensible sandals and a big rucksack. I am now just over a week away from leaving, our flight leaves on 10^th January and I will be travelling to London the night before. I am still waiting for my visa to come, which is a bit of a worry, but we still have time! I am so nervous about going but I am also excited for the challenges and amazing adventures we will have. I know I wouldn't be here without all of the help from my wonderful family and friends, so I want to say a massive thank you to all of you!